4 real. 4 life. 4U.

So I was hanging out in my office today, and I got to thinking about who church is for.  And it isn't who I thought it was.

The first and most important thing I realized is that church isn't for me.  That is, I'm not the reason it's there.  I'n a wanderer here at this church, and always will be.  This is the congregation's church, not mine.

Okay, so is it for the congregation? Yes and no.  Yes the church is absolutely for the people who go there, who worship and pay the bills and all that.  But it's not just for them.

So is church for visitors? Yes and no.  Yes in the sense that all are welcome in God's house.  No in the sense that it's not only for them.  Typically a worship service is a little bit inacessible for someone who has just walked in off the street, because the language of the thing, its rhythm, is foreign to the world unless you grew up with it.

So who is church for?  Real people is the answer to that question.  Or at least should be.  When the Christian church is at its worst, it is horrendously artificial.  Nobody set out to make it that way.  Nobody sat down and looked at the teachings of Jesus Christ and said

"This whole Jesus thing is neat, but let's be really standoffish

and make people think that only perfect people should

go to church."

                          -The Apostle Marshal, AD 33

Nobody said that.  And why would they.  But people got a funny idea in their heads.  They got the funny idea that God doesn't like sin (not that funny of an idea), and that people, to be acceptable to God, would have to be perfect (not that funny of an idea).  So if these two ideas are not so strange, then how do things get so muddled?  Well, people rightly say that sin is bad, and that Jesus said to people that they should be perfect just as God himself is perfect.  But they have these nagging imperfections.  And they're not easy ones.  They're deadly rot that sinks into a person over the course of years.  Frightful jealousy that turns friends against each other.  Drinking to forget.  Living in seething resentment over the mess in your next door neighbor's yard.  Not talking to your family members for ten years because you can't stand what they inherited from when your parents died.  Those real sins.  If those are there, and you're a Christian, then there must be something wrong with either:

a) God

or

b) you.

Well, there can't be anything wrong with God by definition, so there must be something wrong with you.  But could you really admit actual fault?  In that room full of other people who are desperately yearning towards perfection?  No, because they will judge you with their cruel eyes and cluck their thick tongues and suggest oh so very delicately.  

But if you pretend, if you make believe that you're actually doing fine, then nobody will ever know! And they're all doing the same!  Wow!

Whitewashed tombs do look pretty

But the faith that we have comes from the realization that we're not as good as we think we are, or more accurately, as we'd like to be.  And as the liturgy says: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."  We're sinners.  And we have to face facts that sinners might actually show up to church.  And need to be there.  Not the people that we'd like to see, but real sinners.  Sinners like us.

It's time to be honest at church time, and to ask yourself why you're there.  Because it shouldn't be to be noticed by God for your perfection.  That's exactly what Jesus railed against.  The pharisees were always in trouble for that, being whitewashed tombs and all, pristine on the outside, and dead on the inside.  They were in trouble for cleaning the outside of the cup and yet the inside was death in the pot.

The Christian faith properly considered says this:

This whole God thing is for real.  He's a real force in the universe, and he is who he says he is.  He is who he is. He is the underlying reality behind everything, and he is seen in all creation.  All creation praises him.

Jesus came to earth so that you might have life, and have it abundantly.  He came to forgive, he came to set free.  His commands are not burdensome, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  All the stupid stuff that happens, he can forgive.  And replace death with life.  Not only that, but Christianity is not just for kids.  It's for you, your whole life through.  The Bible, the church, it all grows with you.  It's valid for every stage of your life, from toddler to senior.  It's a lifelong pursuit.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all here for you.  Not for me as a pastor, not for some visitor, not for some imaginary perfect Christian, but for you.  Ordinary backslider, average glutton, standard letch.  For you.  Not for who you wish you were, not for who you want people to think you are, but for you.  He didn't come for those who are feeling great, but for those who are sick.  He didn't come for those who are found, but for the lost.  For you.

4 real
4 life
4 you.